Workstation 10 - network drivers do not work for 2012 r2 and 8.1 guests

[schullo]

Host OS:  Windows 8

Guest OS:  Windows Server 2012 R2 -or- Windows 8.1

According to the VMWare compatibility doc, these guest OSes are supported on Workstation 10.  The install goes smoothly and I install the VMWare tools.  After reboot, both guest OSes do not recognize the network adapter.  All attempts to search for and install the adapter drivers manually fail.  There are no errors in the event logs on the guest OS.  The adapter is installed correctly in Workstation 10 as I am using the same virtual adapter with other guest OS VMs and it is working fine on those.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Steve

[Linjo]

What network adapter are you using? Have you tried another one?

[schullo]

I have only tried the vmxnet3 drivers in the guest.  I have tried several virtual adapters on the host (vmnet3 is what I use with my other VMs).  FWIW...the ethernet adapter in the guest device manager shows as not installed properly.  Attempts to search for drivers from that point are unsuccessful so I am not sure what other drivers to try.

[Linjo]

Try the e1000 instead.

[continuum]

why do you try vmxnet3 ?

With the latest versions of vmxnet3 I have seen so many hard-to-troubleshoot problems that I would avoid them when ever possible.

For recnt Windows both
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000e"

should work.
The e1000e use a PCIexpress slot - so changing the vmx-file from
ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"
to

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000e"
is not a good idea. You would also need to change the PCI-slots assignment manually

[voidp]

I have a Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) host running a Windows Server 2012 R2 guest configured with the settings below.  The network adapter and drivers were chosen automatically.  I merely ran the New Virtual Machine Wizard to get them.

ethernet0.address = "00:50:56:00:00:27"

ethernet0.addressType = "static"

ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "192"

ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000e"

ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"

guestOS = "windows8srv-64"

virtualHW.version = "10"